The Regressor Can Make Them All

Chapter 535

Luize ran down the trail of darkness weaving through pristine white light, observing her surroundings as she headed toward the black door at the end.

So this is the rift of the Sanctuary…

Everywhere she looked was divine mana—specifically, the Pilgrim’s power that serves as its source. The space appeared holy no matter how one looked at it, but in truth, it gave off an ominous and overwhelming force that caused Luize to tread carefully in order to avoid straying from the dark path.

She knew for certain: once she was swept away by that power, she’d be helpless.

How did they even manage to carve a path through this?

While she had heard that Se-Hoon had fully awakened his talents during the last incident, she didn’t expect it was to the point where he could oppose a Perfect One’s power to such an extent.

And aside from him, there were her comrades who had entered ahead of her.

Dean Ryu and that bitch Aria… I guess comparing them is meaningless now.

Even Jake, the most ordinary-looking of the group, could wield the power of Premotion to go toe-to-toe with a Perfect One for short bursts. Compared to them… what about herself?

Her self-doubt surging, Luize recalled what had happened at the Inoue family the other day.

“…Tsk.”

Forcibly shaking off the memory, she fixed her gaze on the door that was getting closer. She knew that once she stepped through that door, she would face a Perfect One… which meant there was no time for such useless thoughts.

Think only about the fight right now.

Bracing herself, Luize crossed the threshold while deciding which incantations to invoke.

Whoosh!

The world before her eyes—and even herself—was completely transformed.

This is…

Luize couldn’t see, her vision blocked by some partially transparent cloth—a veil was draped over her head. Realizing what it was, Luize naturally removed it with her hand… no, she tried to remove it.

I can’t move at all.

Her hand wouldn’t move to lift the veil. Her legs, poised to rise from the chair she realized she was sitting in only now, wouldn’t budge. Even her gaze was fixed forward, unable to shift even slightly.

Luzie was forced to stare at the sight in front of her: people draped in veils, just like her, also sitting in chairs offering silent prayers. The number of people in her limited view was in the thousands. Other than them, at the far end was a massive pipe organ that was playing a continuous, mysterious harmony.

And also, a lone man kneeling in prayer before it.

“…”

Through the veil, Luize looked at the man seemingly responding to the prayers filling the church with devotion of his own. He had golden hair and was wearing white priestly robes that she had seen before—on a very recognizable person.

The Pilgrim…

The master of the Church and the Perfect One who had most recently gone on a rampage.

He was right there, right in front of her… yet she couldn’t move. Her freedom wasn’t simply stolen—there was an enforced perception lodged in her mind that any irreverent act was forbidden.

What the hell is this…

Luize clenched her teeth. Although she might be overpowered physically, she wasn’t about to fall for cheap tricks. Determined, Luize began repeating an incantation within her mind over and over, her blue eyes ablaze with blue flames.

Woong!

Persuasion, threat, or command—regardless of what, the essence of Incantation Magic was simply moving the world through one’s synesthetic mindscape. In other words, what mattered was solely expressing and conveying that intent.

Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up.

Despite being unable to conjure a single incantation under her current physical and mental restraints, the essence of Incantation Magic meant she just had to keep repeating that one phrase.

If she couldn’t move the world due to interference, then she’d move herself first. She couldn’t move her mana, but the pure will echoing alone within her continued to grow stronger and stronger until it began making her entire body tremble faintly. The overwhelming chants and the harmony of the organ were being drowned out—

“Redemption.”

Boom!

Luize’s Incantation Magic reverberated throughout the entire church, silencing the pipe organ and gentle chant of prayers into nothing. All that remained was an eerie silence—and the gazes of thousands of believers turning toward Luize.

“Whew…”

Luize was unfazed. She calmly removed the veil from her head, slowly stood up, loosened her stiffened body, and only then looked back at the believers who were glaring at her.

“Get lost.”

Crack!

The world shattered around her, changing the scenery. Now Luize found herself among dusty, bloodstained walls. Chairs were lying scattered about, all too broken to be used, and the floor was cracked and filthy. With just one glance, she found herself somewhere a stark contrast from the earlier vision—an obviously old, decrepit place.

Yet still, some things still looked new: the stained glass windows in particular.

“…”

Luize stared at them, recognizing the images resembling Eun-Ha, Aria, Jake, and Erika—those who had entered the church before her.

Those are…

Crunch!

Luize looked down, noticing the shards of glass scattered around her. She hadn’t realized until she stepped forward reflexively.

Stained glass… was I also in that state just now?

Figuring out that her comrades were truly sealed within the stained glass, Luize’s expression hardened. After all, that meant all of them had been subdued without resistance. Once again, Luize was befuddled by how vast the gap between a normal hero and a Perfect One was.

No, forget it. Now’s not the time for such useless thoughts.

Regardless, she had escaped on her own. Surely, the others were resisting from within.

Believing that to be the case, she crossed the ruined interior toward the far wall—

“Please stop.”

Though gentle, the voice echoing through the church was filled with a power that forbade her from moving further.

Luize frowned and turned toward the voice.

“…”

There, at the ruined back of the church, knelt the Pilgrim himself. In the dreary complete contrast to the illusion, his figure alone remained the same.

This… isn’t an illusion. Luize’s eyes trembled slightly.

While she doubted it was another fantasy, the power she felt from the Pilgrim still made her swallow dryly. After all, his frail body seemed like it would collapse any moment… yet was filled with immeasurable power. In her eyes, it was as if the moon itself had descended; the pressure was unreal, wavering her vision.

Luize forced her lips open.

“You… really are crazy, aren’t you.”

The public practically still trusted the Perfect Ones without doubt, but Luize—who had encountered many while by Se-Hoon’s side—understood them a little. She knew they were connected to the Golden Ring, which gave them transcendental might. To her, they were essentially living Towers.

He’s… different.

Unlike the others, who cautiously accepted the Golden Ring’s power, the Pilgrim audaciously reached out and seized it himself. Somehow, he had become the light that eclipsed the sun or the waves that swallowed oceans—he reversed the impossible into reality.

No wonder we were defeated the moment we stepped in…

She finally understood. The Pilgrim didn’t merely have an advantage. It was they who had walked straight into his domain, a place where he was omnipotent. In other words, her escape in such a place had been a miracle.

“Crazy… Perhaps you can describe me as such,” Karl finally replied, watching her.

“…”

“Max once told me that only I can restore this mad world to what it once was.” His bitter voice echoed through the ruins as his eyes, filled with sorrow, scanned the space. “Perhaps he was right. The world I once knew is so different from what it has become.”

Those born after the emergence of the Towers of Heroes neither questioned nor found anything strange. To them, the “ruined world” was just the “world.” Any warped laws were but truth.

However, the first-generation survivors—those who remembered the world before—could never forget the difference. Like trauma etched in their minds, the old world remained vivid to them.

Karl’s eyes wandered, lost in memories. At that moment, the worn-down church’s interior began reverting as though time was.

Rumble-

Rows of pews reappeared, filled by the shadows of praying people.

The first row: those that had been around before the emergence of the Towers of Heroes. The second, those filled with refugees who had fled their homes away from the Abyss of Demons. And the third was filled with followers of the Pilgrimage Church. Then, finally, the last fourth row…

Squish-

Blood and corpses that grotesquely stained the pews.

That’s..

Luize inhaled sharply. She didn’t know Karl’s entire past, but she could guess what this gruesome memory represented—and what the church she stood in was.

Apostate…

They were in the very place Apostate, after turning into a demon, had slaughtered his fellow believers. The memory of that blood-soaked day remained vividly within Karl, and now, was being replayed.

“But… I don’t know.”

Staring at the projection of his past, Karl’s murmurs were full of despair.

“I still don’t know if this world is so wrong… or if the past one was truly right…”

Even after seizing the power of his god, he still couldn’t answer that simple question. Karl, who had been wandering endlessly in a chasm of doubt, turned to the only one free from his power for a clue.

“What do you think?”

“…”

Luize clenched her fists, feeling Karl’s gaze. Since the beginning of their “conversation,” he had so many chances to eliminate her. Yet he hadn’t. And Luize could sense why: to hear her answer.

Once I answer… he won’t hesitate anymore.

For a single response, she had been given the chance to free her comrades and prepare for battle. But… could she even do such an absurd thing? As doubt began creeping in, a conversation from when she raided the Inoue’s spirit mountain surfaced.

“You just don’t have the resolve.”

That was what the future version of herself—created from Se-Hoon’s imagination—had said when she blocked her path. At that moment she knew: even that foolish version of herself who called herself the Blast Dog had a kind of resolve.

“That fool rampaging down there and even the idiots causing chaos up above—they all have their own resolve. Something they’d never forget, even if it cost them their lives. But out of the four of us, you’re the only one who doesn’t. Because that fool treated you far too softly.”

She had dismantled her Incantation Magic far more easily than Tuner, who used the Seeker’s power—and even explained how.

“Until now, you scraped by on your natural talent. But that won’t work anymore. For beings like the Perfect Ones or the Harbingers of Destruction—those who are connected to the Golden Ring itself—ordinary Incantation Magic simply won’t work.

“So you must find it. Something that won’t change, even if the world crushes you, even if you face death at the end. Find something that’s unshakable even until the very end.

“If you can do that…”

“…You can make the world kneel before you,” Luize whispered softly, recalling the advice of her future self.

At the time, she had thought it was just an arrogant bluff. With the situation as it was now, though, she had to try anything.

Something unchanging.

No matter how many times she pondered it during her solo training, she could never grasp such a thing. However, right now—when facing death itself, a being who was the world—her answer somehow came naturally.

“…”

It was just… an answer that was completely different from what she had imagined. Yet, she couldn’t afford to deny it anymore, not when she had come so far.

Steeling her heart, Luize looked toward the man awaiting her response.

“I just have to answer honestly, right?”

“However you wish.”

“I don’t know.”

“…”

Karl silently stared at her, eventually letting out a long sigh and murmuring, “How unfortunate.”

Rumble-

The church trembled, seemingly on the verge of collapse. Golden light was gathering above Karl’s head, forming a small crown atop his veil.

Wearing a crown made of golden thorns, the power he stole from the Golden Ring burst forth.

Original Sin Crown

The brilliant light devoured everything—Luize, those sealed within the stained glass, and the church were erased without a trace. Facing it directly, Luize was thinking not of a death filled not with pain or fear but peace and tranquility. Salvation was right before her… yet one thought overrode it all.

Even in the face of death, thoughts of one person remained vivid in her mind: the one who always unchangingly protected her, saved her, and guided her.

Summoning all her remaining strength, Luize opened her mouth.

“Lee Se-Hoon.”

Divine Speech that moved the world itself.

Clang!

The world shattered once again, and the ruined church scenery reappeared beyond the fractures.

“Urgh…”

“What is this place…”

At last, her four comrades were freed from the stained glass. Seeing that, the Pilgrim rose to his feet with a hardened expression.

In the meantime, Luize was still staring blankly at it all, unable to believe her eyes. It was like… a dream—Se-Hoon’s face abruptly appeared before her.

“You back with us?”

“You… ugh?!”

Luize sprang up, only now realizing she was being supported by Se-Hoon. Her eyes trembled violently.

Please, please, please…

She desperately wished for one thing, even completely forgetting the Pilgrim was right there. She was completely flustered, confusing Se-Hoon. But then, after a moment, he smiled upon something clicking.

“Ah, don’t worry. What you’re thinking didn’t happen.”

“…R-really?”

“Of course.”

In response to her uncertainty, Se-Hoon gave her a bright smile.

“I remember every single syllable of my name that you—so desperately—cried out~”

“…”

“I swear in my heart that I won’t forget even a single syllable. So don’t worry~”

“Ah… ahhh…”

Gently patting Luize, whose face had turned crimson with shame and despair, Se-Hoon turned his gaze forward.

“Lee Se-Hoon…”

Karl clearly was still unable to understand how Se-Hoon had appeared here or why his power had vanished. Because of that, in that moment, the one called a “god” looked anything but divine.

Focusing his attention on Karl, Se-Hoon loosened his stance.

“You said you didn’t know what the correct decision was, right?”

He walked forward to stand directly in front of Karl—then raised his fists.

“Then let me teach you what it is.”